I was reminded of a passage about confidence from Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” recently.
“Parents think they can hand children permanent confidence—like a gift—by praising their brains and talent. It doesn’t work, and in fact has the opposite effect. It makes children doubt themselves as soon as anything is hard or anything goes wrong.
If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.”
I had two reflections as I re-read this. The first is that this is just as applicable to adults as it is to kids.
And, the second is a reminder of how grateful I am to this blog (and, by extension to all of you) for continuing to inspire me to write about my own challenges, mistakes, effort, and learning. It has been, and continues to be, a life changing experience.
